Sweet and Deadly Book

RATING: 2 STARS

Sweet and Deadly (aka Dead Dog) is Harris's first novel, and is a standalone mystery. While it was easy to keep listening to the story, it was not a strong book. It is hard to describe what kind of mystery novel Sweet and Deadly is. It is not really a cozy as I didn't see the tone being humorous, but it was not gritty either. The tone was a bit confusing. It felt like we told more about how the characters were, rather than seeing how the characters were. It seemed liked this novel was an outline, and still needed to be fleshed out. The ending came so fast that I didn't realize that the story was wrapping up. I am still going to read A Secret Rage but will go in with lower expectations.

UPDATED (March 17, 2020)
The following is how I felt about race as I read Harris's books:
This novel is written in 1984 so there are some things that are dated, but work with the story and are entertaining. However, I did feel a bit uncomfortable with the way Harris describes characters of African American heritage. I do get that she is trying to look at racism, but it doesn't really seem to deplore racism. It rather tries to justify the notion of old white southern people just act like that. When I read it in Sweet and Deadly (which actually has more of this) I kept cringing, but did not mention/address it in my review. I was almost buying into the it's just the "racist old white" person thing of the time, but after reading this one, I needed to say something. Maybe, being a person of colour myself, I am being too sensitive. And, maybe not being black, I am not not being sensitive enough. Thinking back to the Aurora Teagarden series (set in 1990s), I could see a bit of this but not to the same extent. I am going to try the first book in the Lily Bard series, and decide whether I move forward. Or maybe try one of her newer series.